Washington D.C. Teachers Union Still Seeking Justice For 266 Fired Teachers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/12388

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on November 18, 2009 - 4:41pm
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Washington D.C. educators are still trying to get justice for two hundred sixty-six teachers fired in October. At a candlelight vigil this week, they pledged to keep fighting. WIN’s Tanya Snyder reports from Washington.

Mary Collins of the Washington Teachers Union says they gathered at the African American Civil Rights Memorial because education is the civil rights issue of the twenty-first century.

: “We want to shine a light to the need to put the public back in public education in the District of Columbia.”

Two long tables were covered with hundreds of candles, but just a few dozen people showed up to the hastily-planned vigil. The event is one piece of the Teachers’ Union campaign to drum up support for the hundreds of school employees that have been laid off. Union president George Parker says there are also several court proceedings underway.

: “The class action suit itself will still have to be heard through arbitration. What we’ve asked the judge to do is reinstate the teachers while we go through the grievance and arbitration procedure.”

Several dozen teachers fired in an earlier round of terminations in June have been re-instated. The union hopes that decision bodes well for the October layoffs as well.

Tonya Snyder, Workers Independent News

[Craftsman]

1. Why where they fired?